1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and a method for setting a default gateway address that is required when the Internet is used through an Ethernet interface between Terminal Equipment (TE) and a Mobile Terminal (MT) when a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) wireless terminal performs wireless data communication using the TE.
2. Description of the Related Art
A mobile terminal in the 3GPP can be used as a dial-up modem using a Universal Serial Bus (USB), and be connected to TE, so that a user can use wireless data communication function.
For wireless data connection using wireless data, an initial modem setting procedure using an ATtention (AT) command, which is a modem command, and a dial-up procedure to a relevant connection phone number are performed. After the dial-up procedure, authentication and Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment procedures are performed using a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), so that a wireless data connection procedure is completed.
During a PPP connection procedure, a client IP address and a Domain Name System (DNS) IP address are assigned, but a default gateway address is not assigned because the PPP is a point-to-point protocol, and thus, a routing concept does not exist therein.
In a current 3GPP network, particularly, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) network, as the bandwidth of packet data communication continually increases, PPP processing at a wireless terminal causes a great burden in high-speed data processing.
To perform PPP framing/un-framing in a software manner, byte stuffing/de-stuffing is performed at every octet.
As data traffic that should be processed by a wireless terminal gradually has a high-speed characteristic of tens of Mbps or more, corresponding PPP processing burdens a Central Processing Unit (CPU). When such a burden increases, a CPU clock frequency should increases in order to meet an object performance.
However, when the CPU clock frequency is increased, power consumption of a wireless terminal also increases. In order to solve this limitation, a method of using Ethernet communication instead of a PPP is being considered.
In an Ethernet communication scheme, a TE should be assigned a default gateway address through a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). However, in the current 3GPP standard, a procedure for assigning a default gateway address is not at all defined. Accordingly, a wireless terminal is assigned a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) address and a DNS server address from a network through Session Management (SM) signaling, but is not assigned a default gateway address. The PDIP address represents an IP address.
After a session management procedure, a DHCP procedure is performed between TE and a MT. During this procedure, IP configuration information including a default gateway address should be transferred to the TE. When the default gateway address cannot be transferred to the TE, the Internet cannot be used.